Changing the World with Words

Language and writing play an important role in telling stories, discussing issues, causes and concerns and most importantly communicating and sharing ideas that are close to our heart.

Celebrating their 10th Anniversary at Hyatt Regency Downtown Houston, iWRITE Literacy Foundation has been championing this noble cause to not only promote literacy among the youth but encourage them to put their thoughts to paper through their writing camps and youth club programs. The organization raised more than $100,000 to support the organization’s in school and after school writing programs in addition to plans for expansion. Additional writing and public speaking workshops will allow students to learn creative writing skills.

An organization with a heart, iWRITE provides a voice to children, giving them a platform to discover the magic of story writing and poetry, publishing budding writers every year through their writing contest. Through the years they have published 687 student authors and illustrators from 11 different countries resulting in more than 11,000 anthologies that have gone to print.

The theme this year, “International Culture and Setting,” celebrated diversity in Houston, reaching out to all the cultures represented over the years in the publication. The Global honorees, representing each of the seven continents, Lisa Helfman for North America, Alex Blair for South America, Dr. Seun Adigun for Africa, Donatello Benckenstein for Europe, Dr. Sippi Khurana for Asia and Dr. Meenakshi Wadhwa for Antarctica, each pioneers in their respective fields and role models advocating creativity.

Over the years, iWRITE has published young authors from as far as China, India and UAE. To celebrate this, 2019 author Beisan An traveled all the way from Beijing to join the event. The first international entry to kickstart what is today a global legacy, was by Shruti Chakraborty, now a Robotics Engineering Major at ECAM Lyon France, who wrote the poem “Peace in the womb” while she was residing in India. She was awarded the International Author Alumni.

“We are proud to say that the iWRITE Short Stories by Kids for Kids Anthology has no global boundaries,” says Founder Melissa Willams Murphy who along with her wonderful team form the pillar of this wonderful organization, making sure that every child and their story is heard.

Photos By Quy Tran and Michael McKenney

Ping Sun, Jennifer Zhang, Beisan An, Melissa Williams Murphy – Photo By Michael McKenney

Ping Sun, Seun Adigun, Alex Blair, Louise Owen, Melissa Williams Murphy, Elaine Croucher, Donatella Beckenstein, Patricia Pratt – Photo By Michael McKenney